Evan here. Senior cap markets associates at top US firms who are native Chinese have never been as marketable in HK / China as they are today. While such persons have over the past five years always had attractive HK /China options at US and UK firms, as well as in-house, in ’10 we have seen these opportunities expand and improve (more clear shot to partner opportunities than usual) significantly. Further, this may be a relatively small window of time, one to two years perhaps, where these clear shot to partner positions are available in such relative abundance (a handful available at one time, versus zero to one usually at any given time).

To clarify, a clear shot to partner opportunity is one where a business case already exists at a new hire’s new firm for that person to make equity partner. In other words, there is already an equity partner slot open and pegged for such new hire. Of course the senior associate / counsel / salary partner will have to perform, but there is already plenty of deals for that person to execute and the only variable (baring a catastrophe in the market) to making equity partner is that person’s performance, rather than the many variables outside of one’s control that almost always come into play for equity partner promotion (even in the most realistic and strong partnership tracks, there is most usually not already a business case for a new hire to make partner before he / she joins the firm and the business case can be in part made by the new hire’s performance, but also even more usually relies on supervising partners’ and / or new hire’s ability to expand the current practice).

There are a growing number of US cap markets practices in HK / China that have very strong deal flow (emanating from the IPO boom over the past year in HK / China), but are missing a senior native Chinese associate / counsel / junior partner to both execute deals and maintain existing client relations. In many cases in HK / China, top US cap markets groups do not have Chinese partners and although such groups’ partners are market leaders and deal makers, they could use a rising senior associate / counsel to lean on who happens to be native Chinese. The candidates that fill such roles today are being handed one of the leading keys to their new firm’s China practice, in that they are being given both the deals to execute and a leading role in the existing client relations. The former is of course a pre-requisite to having partnership and top in-house senior roles, but the latter is a rare special opportunity that gives a rising attorney a lot of leverage both in the market at large and at his / her current firm. As top US firms are building HK practices and top UK firms are expanding US practices, having a stellar native Chinese senior US associate / counsel on board is more important today than ever before.

While Korea practices, mostly based in Hong Kong, have been busy over the past year and in some cases even quite understaffed, there is not much hiring going of US associates with Korean background.  We recently made a couple such placements at top 10 US firms in HK, one class of ’07 and one ’08, and appear close on another ’08 and an ‘05.  However, there are many more very well qualified Korean US associates on the market in Asia than there are openings.  Further, firms that do have needs in this area are moving very slow to make hires, sometimes waiting months to complete an interview process.

Part of the reason is because firms have so much leverage in the lateral hiring market, due to the large number of native Korean US associates seeking to lateral at present from top US firms in NYC to Asia.  The other main reason is that many of the top US and UK firms in Asia, while off hiring freezes months ago, still do not have the full green light to hire all the US associates they need.  When firm management back in US or UK is only allowing one or two US associate hires in HK, for example, those offices are hiring the biggest area of need – native Chinese US cap markets associates.

We are predicting that there will be more hiring US associate hiring in Korea practices in late ’10 and early ’11 than the first half of ’10.   There will also be more hiring of Korean native US associates at firms in HK that do not have a Korean practice, per se, but have a strong need for an associate or two with Korean fluency and ability to work on the ground in Korea for much of the year.  One of our recent ’08 placements fits this description.   Such needs arise as firms have more deal flow out of Korea, but not any Korean native associates.  This type of hire will not be for only Korean deal work, but will be a mix of Korean and Asia markets deal flow, with special responsibilities coming in the Korea work of course.

When considering a move to Singapore, it is more important than in other Asia markets that you have some type of credible connection to the city-state.  This would seem ironic, since in Singapore firms routinely hire English-only US associates, so on the surface it would seem the perfect Asia market to target if you do not have an Asian background.

While it may have been true during the ’07 hiring boom that associates without Singapore ties were able to penetrate that market , this is no longer the case.  US and UK firms all over Asia in ‘07 were dealing with a shortage of well-qualified US associate candidates, so even though Singapore was not hiring nearly as much as Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, it was an easier place to land in ‘07 for someone who had no connection at all to Asia.

Today, things are quite different.  While the number of openings in Asia are once again relatively high (especially in Hong Kong / China and Singapore), there are many more qualified candidates for these positions than there were in ‘07.  A number of our Singapore Biglaw client firms are hiring now, but are being understandably very selective.

One of the key factors our candidates for Singapore are dealing with is the issue of why, exactly, they are moving to Singapore.   Why Singapore, why this particular paradise tropical location?  Unprepared candidates or recruitment consultants are sometimes caught off guard.  Were your parents or grandparents born in Singapore, were you born in Singapore (as Evan was), do you have an aunt in Kuala Lumpur?  Think about what you can come up with in terms of nexus before contacting us, let alone sitting for an interview.

While PRC firms, Korean firms and Japanese firms have for years successfully recruited US biglaw associates, in ’09 such recruitment was more successful than usual. There are two reasons for this trend: i) most top US firms in Asia were on hiring freeze throughout ’09, making it extremely difficult for even the most impressive US associates to lateral to a US practice in Asia in ’09 (such lateral moves did happen, most with Kinney involved, but not in great number, relative to ’06, ’07, ’08 and ‘10); and ii) there has been a feeling in the market in the past couple of years that some local firms in Asia, especially PRC firms, are catching up to US practices there.

We know a number of US associates who made the move from top 10 US firms to PRC firms in ’09 (some with Kinney's help). We also know a handful of US associates from top tier US firms that moved to Korean and Japanese local firms in ’09. This type of lateral move has been a good one for those looking for more of an entrepreneurial role early on in their career, especially if they have very strong personal connections at banks and other relevant entities in the target country. However, this type of move has been a bad one for those who are focused on keeping their technical skill set at a top US practice level of sharpness (in order to open up career doors now and in the future).

A great draw of US biglaw associates to Hong Kong is the lucrative and somewhat illogical expat / cola allowances. Even though the cost of living in Hong Kong is not much different than New York (housing is a bit higher in HK), it is common to receive an expat / cola allowance of well over $60,000 USD.

Last year most in the Hong Kong market expected the lucrative US associate expat / cola allowances to lower dramatically, due to the global recession (which did greatly reduce deal flow in HK / China from late ’08 to mid ’09) and with many firms on global hiring freeze at the time. However, in reality, the expat / cola allowances at the more competitive US and UK firms in HK were never really in danger of dropping much, even during the very slow lateral biglaw hiring period in HK from December ’08 until October ’09.